Obama, Congress Put Working Families at Heart of Economic Plan

by Mike Hall, Jan 5, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama and Congress aren’t wasting any time setting the tone that the nation’s working families are at the center of their efforts to revitalize the economy and rebuild the middle class.

Obama is meeting today and throughout the week with congressional leaders to shape an economic recovery package that focuses on job creation, tax relief for middle-class families, help for the unemployed and aid for states caught in the grip of a tightening fiscal crisis.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will vote on two bills to ensure equal pay for women and reverse the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely restricted the rights of women to combat pay discrimination through the courts.

In his weekly radio address, Obama said the economic package—The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan—aims to

not only create jobs in the short-term, but spur economic growth and competitiveness in the long term….We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan—which is to create 3 million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.

Earlier, congressional leaders said they hoped to have a recovery package ready for Obama to sign as soon as he takes office Jan. 20, but Republican leaders are slowing action. Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said final votes on the recovery legislation could come by early February.

But action on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act is set for Wednesday. Both bills passed the House in the past session, but Senate Republicans blocked a similar vote in the Senate.

After years of working at an Alabama Goodyear tire plant, Ledbetter discovered she was being paid less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work. She gathered enough evidence to file suit, and a jury awarded her $3.8 million. But Goodyear appealed to the Supreme Court.

However, in May 2007, the Supreme Court squelched the award and ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination where workers wait more than 180 days after their first paycheck, even if they don’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.

The Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), would provide more effective remedies for women who are not paid equal wages for doing equal work, by adding some teeth to the 1963 Equal Pay Act.

Women are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Women workers covered by a union contract are guaranteed equal pay. But millions of other working women don’t have that protection and must rely on today’s inadequate fair pay laws.

On Friday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will begin confirmation hearings on Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), Obama’s nominee for secretary of labor. Said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, when Solis’ nomination was announced:

We’re confident that she will return to the Labor Department one of its core missions—to defend workers’ basic rights in our nation’s workplaces.

She’s proven to be a passionate leader and advocate for all working families. In fact, she’s voted with working men and women 97 percent of the time.

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